Shoe-upper



.(No Model.)

J. C. DAGGETT.

SHOE UPPER.

No. 481,299. Patented Aug. 23, 1892.

IINTTED STATES SATENT Trice.

JOHN C. DAGGETT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE-UPPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 481,299, dated August 23, 1892.

Application filed April 14, 1892.

To @ZZ whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN C. DAGGETT, of Boston, county of Suiolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Shoes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a speciiication, like letters and figures on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object to improve that class of shoe designated as seamless quarter, my improvements enabling me to give to that class of shoe a properly-shaped spring and yet obviate the cracking and breaking through of the quarter above the top of the usual counter.

Prior to my invention it has been customary to cut an irregular slit in the top part of the quarter at one side of the point where the usual heel-seam of the two-part quarter shoes falls, and a gore-piecehas been inserted in the space left by expanding the top of the quarter, and so, also, it has been customary to cut into the quarter from its top aninverted-V-shaped slit, leaving a central tongue eX- tending upwardly toward but not to the edge of the top, and this top having been expanded outwardly a breeches-shaped gusset in one piece with two legs has been stitched into the top, the tongue on the top iillingthe space between the legs of the gusset. In this class of shoe it has been found ditiicult to always get the desired spring for the top, and so, also, difficulty is experienced in the horizontal cracking of the quarter just above the top oi the counter and between the said top and the lower end of the gore or gusset referred to. In my experiments to improve this class of shoe to gain greater spring, much desired for comfort to the leg, and also to obviate the cracking I have devised a gusset composed of two pieces having concaved edges such that when they are stitched together they establish the spring for the top. I cut in from the top edge of the seamless quarter two substantially parallel slits, leaving a narrow ceptral tongue extended up to the edge of the top to constitute a stay on the outside and as well a covering for the outturned seam made by uniting the two pieces of the gusset, as above stated. This gusset is left with its ends long enough to envelop the top or upper edge of the counter, thus preventing the Serial No. 429 ,090. (No model.)

breaking of the quarter, as would be the case if the counter at its top bore directly against the quarter, and, further, which is of great importance, the lower end of the gusset interposed between the counter and quarter constitutes an effective and valuable inside stay.

Figure l shows a quarter-blank slitted. Fig. 2 shows the gusset folded, one piece on the other, and stitched together. Fig. 3 shows the gusset stitched in place after expanding the top, said figure showing by dotted lines the usual counter and the outline of the gusset. Fig. 4 is a section in the line ce, and Fig. 5 is a section in the line 0c.

In my improved shoe, inasmuch as the vamp and soles may be of any usual construction, material, and shape I have considered it unnecessary to show them.

The quarter A (shown best in Fig. l) is and may be of any usual shape,it being seamless. The quarter is slitted at a, so as to leave a central staying-tongue a extended substantially to the upper edge of the top. I then take two gore-shaped pieces I) b, cut their inner edges at a suitable curve to attord the desired spring for the top of the shoe, the greater the Variation in the width of the pieces Z; from end to end the greater the spring, and I then stitch the edges of the pieces b together at b', thus forming a gusset, which is then inserted into the back of the top of the shoe, with the edges of the gusset next the seam b turned outwardly, and thereafter the side edges of the gusset are stitched to the top by stitches, as at 2 2, andthe tongue ct is stitched down upon the gusset in the lines 3 3 by suitable stitches, the said tongue thus overlapping the outturned but closed inner edges ot' the gusset, thus concealing the outturned seam and forming an outside stay. This gusset as I prefer to make it and as I have shown it made herein is of sufiicient length to overlap the upper edge of the usual counter c, and by coming in between the counter and quarter the said gusset becomes not only an eltective inside stay, but it also prevents the counter by its action on the quarter from cracking or breaking the same through. Usually the overlapping lower ends of the pieces h h, constituting the gusset, are chamfered or skived to avoid a bunch.

Prior to my invention I am not aware that IOO the spring-producing gusset put into a slit of a seamless-quarter shoe has ever been eX- tended below the inner end of the slit and far enough to overlap the upper edge ot' the counter to thus protect the quarter at that point, and herein as to this part of my invention the saine is not limited to the exact shape shown for the gusset or to the exact shape or direction of the slit or slits.

I am aware that two pieces of elastic goring have had their edges stitched to portions ot' an upper at the top of a shoe at each side of the rear side of the top; but prior to my invention I am not aware that two pieces to oonstitute a gore have ever had their edges stitched together and inserted in the rear part of the shoe to ill two slits therein, as described and provided for in my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

l. In a shoe, a seamless quarter having two slits made therein from its upper edge and a staying-tongue intermediate said slits, coinbined with a gusset composed of pieces b, having each a concaved edge and having said concaved edges stitched together to give the requisite spring to the top of the shoe, said gusset being stitched at its outer edges to the quarter, the tongue being stitched upon the central portion of the gusset to cover the seam uniting the two parts of the gusset, said tongue also constituting an outside stay, substantially as described.

2. A seamless quarter slitted from its upper toward its lower edge, a staying-tongue extended upwardly from the lower end of the slit, and a stiffening-counter for said quarter, combined with a gusset stitched to said quarter and extended down below the end of the said slit and tongue and between the quarter and the upper edge of the counter to constitute an inside stay and to protect the quarter between the top ot' the counter and the slitted part above, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof l have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing -witnesses.

JOHN C. DAGGETT.

XVitnesses:

FREDERICK L. EMERY, FRANCES M. NOBLE. 

